On the northwest edge of Milwaukee, in the village of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, a congregation of about 200 believers gathers under the motto "Building Up and Reaching Out." Calvary Baptist Church has stood on its 17-acre property at the corner of Main Street and Menomonee Avenue since 1957, holding firmly to the conviction that the Bible is the verbally inspired, inerrant Word of God and that the chief work of the church is to preach that Word, evangelize the lost, and disciple believers of every age.
Building on Menomonee Avenue Since 1957
Calvary Baptist Church was founded in 1957 to provide a place of worship, fellowship, training, and service in accordance with the Word of God. Over the years the congregation completed three phases of a new building, including a classroom wing, offices, a kitchen, and a gymnasium. After the Lord provided a buyer for the old property, every ministry moved to the current facility at N84 W19049 Menomonee Avenue. Until a new sanctuary can be built, the church family worships together in the gymnasium - a temporary arrangement that has not dampened the warmth of the welcome.
For nearly five decades Calvary also operated a Christian school on the property. Calvary Baptist School opened in 1975 and provided a solid, Bible-based private education for 49 years before closing permanently at the end of the 2023-2024 school year. The church office still retains all student records and will send high school transcripts to colleges or employers on request.
What to Expect on a Sunday
A first-time visitor can expect to be greeted at the door and directed to wherever they need to go, whether that is a Sunday school class, the nursery, or straight to the worship service.
The Sunday schedule runs like this:
- 9:00 am - Sunday School for every age
- 10:00 am - Morning Worship
- 6:00 pm - Evening Worship
A typical Sunday morning service includes music, congregational singing, prayer, the offering, and preaching. Music is described by the church as "a very integral part of worship at Calvary Baptist Church." Through traditional, conservative music - whether from the congregation's voices, the special music, or the instruments - the goal is to glorify God and reflect the stewardship of the members' talents. Communion is observed once a month, alternating between the morning and evening services. Guests are not required to be members in order to partake, but the church asks that they be professing believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Wednesdays of Bible Study and Prayer
On Wednesday evenings at 7:00 pm the church gathers for a combined Bible study and prayer meeting. The youth group meets at the same hour, so families arrive together and the children head off to their own study while the adults dig into the Scriptures. The Wednesday night is the midweek anchor for the whole church family.
Pastors Rodney Schuler and Dan Dillman
Senior Pastor Rodney Schuler and his wife Nancy came to Calvary Baptist Church in April 2009. Pastor Schuler holds a B.A. in Pastoral Ministry from Taylor University and an M.Div. from Grace Theological Seminary. He has spent 29 years in pastoral ministry in Northern Indiana and also served briefly as a Bible and Greek instructor at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College. His experience spans youth pastoring, Christian education, church planting, and assistant and senior pastorates. He and Nancy have raised four children committed to the cause of Jesus Christ, and his life verse is John 1:14, summed up in the words "seeking to be like Christ, full of grace and truth." He often reminds the church that "there are only two things in this world that last forever; the souls of people and God's Word."
Assistant Pastor Daniel Dillman began his ministry with Calvary in 2016. He earned a B.A. in Biblical Counseling from Maranatha Baptist University and was working toward an M.Div. from Maranatha Baptist Seminary. He has been involved in youth ministry since his college years and enjoys the challenge of making Scripture practical in the 21st century. He teaches Bible at Calvary Baptist School, runs the youth program, and is passionate about teaching the younger generation to grow, serve, and lead. His anchor verse for the young people of the church is 1 Timothy 4:12: "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."
Song leader Andrew Fleming also serves the church musically and occasionally brings his own message from the pulpit, as he did when he preached from Philippians 3:17-21 on "Pursuing the Highest though the Lowest is Pleasing."
Children: Nursery through AWANA
Calvary's children's ministry is designed to point the young ones to Christ through Bible-saturated lessons and engaging activities while their parents are in the main worship service.
The nursery is open during every main service and at church activities. Care is provided for infants through age 2 by adults who are members of Calvary Baptist Church and have completed background checks. The hours match the schedule: Sunday School at 9:00 am, Sunday morning at 10:00 am, Sunday night at 6:00 pm, and Wednesday night at 7:00 pm.
Children's Church is offered for children age 2 through third grade and meets during the sermon portion of the morning service. Age-appropriate Bible stories and songs are taught, and participation is completely voluntary - parents are welcome to keep their children with them in the auditorium if they prefer. Various church members take turns teaching Children's Church one month at a time.
Sunday School for children runs at 9:00 am on Sunday mornings with age-graded curricula: Joyful Life for ages 2-5, Regular Baptist Press for grades 1-6, Scripture Press for junior high, and various Bible study materials for senior high.
AWANA, which takes its name from 2 Timothy 2:15 ("Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth"), meets on Monday nights from 6:30 to 8:30. The season begins after Labor Day and ends before Easter. At Calvary, the program serves children age 2 through 8th grade and is divided into four clubs:
- Cubbies - ages 3-4
- Sparks - K5 through 2nd grade
- Truth and Training (T&T) - 3rd through 6th grade, with boys and girls meeting separately
- Trek - 7th and 8th grade
A typical AWANA night includes handbook time, a challenge time from God's Word, and game time. The program emphasizes Scripture memory, helps those in need, and supports those in full-time Christian service. Two annual fundraisers - Care and Share and Coin-A-Rama - teach the children about giving. Special activities throughout the year include roller skating, a Grand Prix pinewood-derby-style race for T&T and Trek, and the AWANA Fair at year's end. The leaders often remark that almost all of them were clubbers themselves once.
Teens: Youth Group and Sunday School
Seventh through twelfth grade students are invited to participate in all youth group activities. The youth group meets every Wednesday evening from 7:00 to 8:30 for games, Bible study, and prayer. Once a month, a SNAC (Sunday Night After Church) is hosted by one of the church families in their home. Other activities throughout the year are designed to promote friendship and service. On Sunday mornings at 9:00, senior high and junior high students meet separately for Sunday school.
Adults: Bible Classes, Women, Men, and Golden Agers
At 9:00 on Sunday mornings many Calvary adults come through the doors to learn the Word of God in a friendly, Christ-like atmosphere. The adult elective classes give a range of options during the Sunday school hour, each focusing on a different topic. The conviction of the teachers is reflected in 2 Timothy 3:16: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."
From October to May, the ladies of the church gather twice a month on Thursday mornings from 9:30 to 11:00 for a women's Bible study. The time includes prayer, group discussion, teaching, fellowship, and refreshments. Nursery is provided for all children.
On the first Saturday of every month from 7:30 to 9:00 am, men meet for the Men's Prayer Breakfast. They share a time of fellowship and encouragement as they study and pray together, encouraging one another with the conviction of Proverbs 27:17: "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend."
The Golden Agers is the church's ministry for adults over age 50. Its purpose is to offer additional opportunities of fellowship and worship for senior adults. Activities have included a Thanksgiving meal, a Christmas brunch, attending a play, and shopping outings. Newcomers are cordially invited to join in at the next gathering.
The church also lists Grief Share as one of its adult ministries, though the program is not available at this time.
The Articles of Faith
Calvary Baptist Church holds to a traditional Baptist confession of faith, summarized in twenty-two articles. The church believes in the authority and sufficiency of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, which are verbally and plenarily inspired, infallible, and inerrant in all that they affirm. There is one living and true God, infinite Spirit, Creator of all, existing eternally in three co-equal persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - executing distinct but harmonious offices in redemption.
The church confesses the absolute deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, His sinless life, His vicarious atoning death, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and His present intercession as high priest. Salvation is wholly of grace through faith in the finished work of Christ, repentance being a change of mind and purpose toward God prompted by the Holy Spirit and an integral part of saving faith. The new birth is a new creation, instantaneous and not a process, brought about sovereignly by the Holy Spirit through the Word.
The church teaches a six-literal-day creation, the historicity of Adam and Eve, the total depravity of fallen humanity, the eternal security of the saints, and a threefold sanctification - positional at conversion, progressive through life, and complete at the Lord's return.
The church is a New Testament institution, of which Jesus Christ is the sole Head, and a local church is defined as "an organized congregation of immersed believers, associated by covenant of faith and fellowship of the gospel." Officers are pastors and deacons, and the ordinances are believer's baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper. The church teaches a pretribulational rapture, a premillennial return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the judgment seat of Christ for believers, and the great white throne judgment for the lost.
Among the moral distinctives: marriage is the union of one man and one woman until death; human life begins at conception; abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia are understood to violate Scripture; and believers are called to separate from worldliness and ecclesiastical apostasy. Civil government is of divine appointment, to be obeyed except where obedience contradicts the will of Christ the King.
Reaching Out in Menomonee Falls and Beyond
The Great Commission shapes everything Calvary does outside its own walls. The evangelism committee organizes regular outreaches in the community: distributing welcome packets to families moving into Menomonee Falls, coordinating meals for church members with special needs, and planning events such as Frisbee outreach, National Day of Prayer, Friendship Day, a Men's Steak Dinner, and a Ladies Luncheon. A Vacation Bible School is held every summer, usually in June.
The church also participates in Good News Clubs in area public schools in Slinger, Hartford, and Erin. Good News Club is a ministry of Child Evangelism Fellowship in which trained teachers meet once a week after school with groups of children for a Bible lesson, songs, Scripture memory, a missions story, and themed games.
Once a month, on the fourth Monday evening, the church leads a service at the Milwaukee Rescue Mission. The team ministers to physical needs by donating clothes and books and to spiritual needs through a service of singing, testimonies, music, and preaching, taking time to pray with the men for their personal requests. The whole congregation is invited to take part in this ministry.
Calvary supports a number of missionaries around the world in Brazil, Ukraine, Central Asia, Germany, and South Africa, as well as missionaries in Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and other parts of Wisconsin. Every October the missions committee organizes a missions conference with a different missionary speaking each Sunday morning and evening throughout the month, culminating in a Faith Promise service and a potluck luncheon. The church also stresses that "we're all missionaries in our schools, homes and workplace...wherever we go and in whatever we do."
Calvary Today on WVCY 107.7
The church also operates a radio ministry called Calvary Today. Messages by Pastor Rodney Schuler are aired on Sunday mornings from 8:30 to 8:45 am Central time on WVCY 107.7 FM in the Milwaukee area. Romans 10:17 frames the outreach: "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
Sermons and Teaching
Teaching the whole counsel of God is at the heart of Calvary's pulpit ministry. Recent sermon series have walked through the book of Revelation (covering letters to seven churches, the throne room of God, the scroll and the Lamb, the four horsemen, and the fifth seal), 2 Samuel (the reign and failures of King David), the covenants of atonement (Abrahamic, Mosaic, and New), Hebrews (Marching to Zion, Noah's future-oriented faith), the Joseph story (God meant it for good), the letters to the seven churches, Jonah (the mercy of God), and topical series on marriage, parenting, abortion, the image of God, and end-times prophecy.
Stewardship and Giving
Stewardship at Calvary begins with the understanding that everything - time, gifts, talents, and financial resources - is a gift from the Lord. Biblical stewardship means acknowledging God's ownership and joyfully honoring Him through tithes, gifts, and offerings. The daily ministry of Calvary, and its mission and vision of "Building Up and Reaching Out," are directly related to the generosity of its members.
Giving is possible in cash or check during the Sunday offering, or online through Servant Keeper Giving. With Servant Keeper, members and supporters can give by credit card, debit card, or bank account and can set up scheduled contributions, view and print contribution statements, and track their giving throughout the year. The church is phasing out its older Vanco platform and encourages recurring Vanco users to switch to Servant Keeper.
Pastor Schuler often reminds the congregation of 2 Corinthians 9:7-8: "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."
A Word to Visitors
Menomonee Falls sits about fifteen miles northwest of Milwaukee, and Calvary Baptist Church sits at the corner of Main Street and Menomonee Avenue. The church office is open Monday through Thursday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm and can be reached at (262) 251-0328 or church@calvarytoday.org. Visitors are greeted at the door, directed to a Sunday school class or the nursery as needed, and welcomed into a tradition that prizes the Word of God, the work of the gospel, and the care of every believer from the cradle to the Golden Agers.